작품 상세

Five drawings in a series reddish-brown crayon on paper 10 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (sight, each sheet) Kline began to explore abstraction in the late 1940s. In this study the viewer can "read" his process, from figurative, to abstract, then back to figurative. The central, most-abstract drawing in the series, individually retains the feeling of movement derived from the car headlight and train nose. In 1950, Kline painted an abstraction of a train that ran through his hometown in Philadelphia. This painting, Chief, is now on display at MoMA. Kline made several preparatory sketches before painting his abstractions, and this drawing falls into that genre of study drawings. Trains and cars inspired Kline whose paintings, though non-representational, still evoke movement, machinery and industry. In 2012 the Franz Kline exhibition, Coal and Steel at the Allentown Museum of Art, included works from this early period in Kline's career. Kline used the urban industrial landscape of Philadelphia create abstract motifs such as the car/train sequence above.